At the top, we had 1. Bu, 8/10, 2-6. Tomas Krnan (Canada), Kamil Miton (Poland), Chanda Sandipan (India), Bator Sambuev (Russia), and Nigel Short (England). All are Grandmasters (GM's) except Krnan (International Master). These five were half a point off the pace with 7.5/10 scores, worth $1,500 CAD each.

The group at 7 points had no fewer than 15 players in it, all titled (8 GM's, 3 IM's and 4 FM's). This should provide the reader with an idea of the depth of the field!

Class prize winners and complete tournament listings should be available at the above link or at www.canchess.blogspot.com before too long.

I should also mention that the event produced one additional IM norm for a Canadian (other than Noritsyn, whose IM norm (his 4th apparently, and so a bonus one actually) was reported in the Round 9 blog entries. British Columbia Junior Bindi Cheng garnered his 1st IM norm by virtue of his last round win over Montreal's FM Lefong Hua - congratulations!

It's been a long week for many people (myself included), but I hope that you have found the blog entertaining and informative - I tried to capture the flavour of the live commentary as much as possible (less humour perhaps, but next time you may simply have to make the trip to Ottawa!). You'll have to forgive my early formatting woes and inadequacies....as I promised it improved a bit as things went on. Next time I'll make it even better!

Any comments/questions can be directed to dhergott@sympatico.ca. That's it for now - have a great summer!

In the end, it was pre-tournament favourite, GM Xiangzhi Bu of China, (who outrated England's Nigel Short by a mere 2 FIDE rating points on the new July 2007 list), who made it to the winner's podium in clear and undefeated first place. With a final score of 8/10, and a $5,000 CAD first prize, he began the event with a win on Board 1, and finished it the same way this morning against uncompromising Swiss GM Vadim Milov:

Milov - Bu: Slav Defence, 4.e3

This was Bu's 4th consecutive Slav, playing with either colour, although here Milov played a solid line which dissuades an early ...dxc4.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4!?

An attempt to provoke f2-f3, after which White's N/h4 will lack a natural retreat square. It is likely to take on g6 in any case, as planned, so it is worth mentioning that f2-f3 also softens up White's K-side, and the dark squares in particular.

7.f3 Bg6 8.Qb3 Qc7 9.Bd2 Be7 10.cxd5 cxd5

Not fearing the open c-file, Black plays to provide a more active post for his N/b8, reserving d7 for the King's knight if needed.

11.Nxg6 hxg6 12.0–0–0 Nc6 13.Kb1 a6 14.Rc1 Nd7

15.h4!?

Now that Black's knight has left the K-side, White offers a pawn. Bu was not likely tempted, but 15...Rxh4?! (15...Bxh4? 16.Be1! wins) 16.Rxh4 Bxh4 17.e4!, and 17...Nxd4?! 18.Qa4! x-rays along the 4th rank hitting N/d4 and B/h4 (after a subsequenct exd5). With Black's bishop and King position so loose, I am certain Bu did not consider capturing for very long.

15...Rc8 16.g4 Rxh4 17.Rxh4 Bxh4

With a White pawn on g4 blocking the 4th rank, and an extra move in development, Bu now decided to test Milov's idea.

18.f4 Bf6 19.f5!?

Consistent. White is trying to open lines while Black's King is still uncastled.

19...Na5 20.Qc2 gxf5 21.gxf5 Nc4 22.Bxc4 Qxc4 23.fxe6 fxe6 24.b3!?

Move order is important here. 24.Qg6+ Kd8 25.b3 is also possible, but White's choice keeps some flexibility with the White Queen's choice of entry. Black is under a bit of pressure, but the pawn sac still has a specualative look to it.

24...Qb4!? 25.Qh7 Rc6! 26.Qh5+ Kd8 27.Be1 Nb6 28.Qh2

28...Na4!

Sometimes the best defence is liquidation. Black's last forces a series of exchanges while trying to make the most of that extra pawn.

Bravely playing for the win. Many players would succumb to nerves and acquiesce to a draw by perpetual, but Black still wants to be shown why his pawn shouldn't count for something.

35.Qf8

My initial suggestion of 35.Nc5+!, (which looks pretty crushing), is met by the mundane 35...Qxc5, winning. Oops, guess I better change that to 35.Nc5+?? I did mention that this game was played (and analyzed) at 10 am, after a week long of 6 pm starts. Well, I need some excuse for hanging pieces, right?

35...Be7! 36.Qxg7 Qe2+ 37.Kb1 Qd3+ 38.Kb2 Qxe3 39.Nc5+ Kc6 40.Nxb7?!

This turns out poorly, but Black is already quite a bit better if this doesn't work. 40.Qxe7 Qxd4+, and 41...Qxc5 certainly looks like no picnic for White.

40...Qf2+ 41.Kb1?

It appears that 41.Kc3! may be a better try, but Black can always try 41...Qe1+ and 42...Qb4, leading to a Queen endgame with an extra pawn, and perhaps more importantly two central passers. White may find a draw, but it looks to be a very depressing task.

41...Qf5+! 42.Kb2 Qf6! 43.Na5+ Kb5 0–1.

At least another pawn is dropping, and Queens are coming off. Another fine and controlled win by the 2007 Canadian Open Chess Champion.

The Board 1 matchup between GM's Bu and Miton featured the identical opening to Bu's win over Atalik from Round 8. Miton played 13...Bxc3, capturing what looked like a "hot pawn", instead of Atalik's 13...Ba3+, but this may have been a case where using Fritz, Rybka, or some other silicon oracle, came in handy. Indeed after the cool 16...a5!, it was tough to find anything convincing for White, despite the risky-looking position of Black's King. Bu tried a couple of different discovered check sequences, but ultimately settled for a threefold repetition.

If this defensive idea holds for Black, I will have to downgrade 10.Be3! to 10.Be3!?, but I suspect we may not have seen the end of this line yet (well, probably in this tournament). Regardless, it is still a pretty cool move!

******

GM Milov scored an important win with Black against former leader GM Suat Atalik of Turkey, so he faces top seed, GM Bu, tomorrow on Board 1:

The other big win on the top boards went to English GM Nigel Short, who took the full point with Black against Ottawa's IM Tom O'Donnell. Short was apparently quite pleased to not make it "six in a row", referring to his long drawing streak since starting the event with 3-0. With a win in the final round, he will cinch a minimum of equal-3rd, depending on the results on the top two boards between the four players on 7 points.

O'Donnell - Short: Nimzo-Indian

1.d4!? Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 b6 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 Bb7 7.Nf3

Not the sharpest line. 7.Bg5 is the hot theory here, but Tom has only recently made the switch from a lifetime of 1.e4 to 1.d4. I joked with him after this game, pointing out that his e-pawn stayed on e2 for nearly the entire game, and he actually ended the game with 35.e3 - so the e-pawn has gone from a star with top billing to a completely minor side show! :-)

7...d6 8.g3 c5 9.dxc5 bxc5 10.Bg2 a5 11.0–0 a4

Gaining space on the Q-side. Initially I thought that White should not have allowed Black to clamp down like this, but it turns out that Tom has a specific idea in mind.

So White is simply playing to pester Black with the passed a-pawn, and use its annoying presence as a (hopeful) distraction to certain Black plans of action. I wasn't fully convinced that Black couldn't eventually round it up (by playing ...N/d7-b8-c6, say), but that will take some time, which may in turn give White time to make counterplay elsewhere. My intuition sensed a small plus for Black, with his central pawn advantage.

18...Rfa8 19.Ra3 h6 20.h3 R8a7!? 21.g4?!

This seemed out of character for Tom's style, and I speculated if a time shortage may have been responsible for his decision to "do something active". Nigel had spoken briefly to me on one of my errands to the playing room for .pgn updates, and suggested that "winning on time" might figure into his plans for winning today's game.It turns out that Tom was, in fact, somewhat short of time, but that his real reason for playing actively had more to do with the book, Chess for Tigers, which advocates randomizing positions against significantly higher-rated opponents if you feel that playing your own game is going to simply be bound to failure. Interesting idea!?Both Tom and Nigel were present in the commentary room after the end of their game, and we were fortunate to share some opinions on these matters. Nigel was actually most concerned about Tom finding a way to "do nothing" in a constructive fashion, and leave it to Black to find a convincing plan to improve his position and play for a win. He was also very quick to point out that there are very few players in the world who can do nothing constuctively, so to speak, and that it was a real talent! He also made the witty observation that contrary to what has been written in several chess books, he felt that "Having no plan is far superior to having a bad plan!" Several books (and I agree that I have seen them as well) advocate the opposite, saying that a bad plan is better than no plan at all. In Nigel's opinion, no plan will not necessarily worsen one's position, whereas a bad plan is usually labelled bad because it creates some kind of damage. In this sense, it was unfortunate that Tom decided upon the plan (ultimately bad) of advancing his g-pawn. Now Nigel had something concrete to focus on!

21...Nf8 22.Qe3 e5 23.g5 hxg5 24.Nxg5 Bxg2 25.Kxg2 Ng6

All foreseen since move 21. Black aims to exploit the weakened f4 and h4 squares.

26.Rb3 Ra8 27.Rdb1 R6a7 28.f3 Nf4+ 29.Kh2 Re8!?

Another interesting psychological moment. Black could immediately bear down on the weak h3-pawn with 29...Qc8, say, but as Nigel pointed out, White would undoubtedly be quite prepared for such a direct threat. Instead, Black feints with a useful move - for example, on the reasonable try, 30.Bg3, Black simply takes on a5, and now 31.Bxf4, eliminating the powerful N/f4, loses the e2-pawn after 31...exf4 opens up the e-file. With time ticking, Nigel's move is a much tougher one to meet, and Tom admitted to running out of ideas here. He wasn't particularly satisfied with the move he chose.

30.Rb6 Qd7 31.Rb8 Ra8 32.Rxa8 Rxa8

So the h3-pawn is targeted after all, and with serious consequences.

33.h4 Nh7! 34.Qg1?

34.Qf2 is only slightly better, but Black wins minimum of a pawn, with a vastly superior position.

34...f6 35.e3

35...Nxg5! 0–1.

Unfortunately for White, only one Black knight can be taken at a time, so White is getting mated on h3.

**********

According to Chief Arbiter, Jonathan Berry, Toronto teen, Nikolay Noritsyn of Canada has made a 9-game IM norm at this event, holding three GM's to draws (Miton, Milov and Rychagov, and losing only to GM Tiviakov). Congratulations on a great result!

Tomorrow's final round is at the ungodly hour of 10 am (those inconsiderate out-of-towners who have planes to catch, etc....I tell ya! :-))

It's been a great event, but like the players, I am going to need some sleep to have sufficient energy to wrap things up nicely....see you soon.